Week 24: Relationships and Self-Identity Flashcards
Autobiographical Reasoning
the ability, typically developed in adolescence, to derive substantive conclusions about the self from analyzing one’s own personal experiences
Ego
Freud’s conception of an executive self in the personality; imagined as observing outside reality, engaging in rational thought, and coping w the competing demands of inner desires/moral standards
Identity
a developmental task for late adolescence and young adulthood; forming an identity in adolescence and young adulthood involves exploring alternative roles, values, goals, and relationships and eventually committing to a realistic agenda for life that productively situates a person in the adult world of work/love; identity formation entails commitments to new social roles and reevaluation of old traits - brings w it a sense of temporal continuity in life, achieved through the construction of an integrative life story
Narrative identity
an internalized/evolving story of the self designed to provide life w some measure of temporal unity and purpose; beginning in late adolescence, people craft self-defining stories that reconstruct the past and imagine the future to explain how the person came to be the person that they are
Redemptive Narratives
life stories that affirm the transformation from suffering to an enhanced status/state; redemptive life stories are highly prized as models for the good self, as in classic narratives of atonement, upward mobility, liberation, and recovery
Reflexivity
the idea that the self reflects back upon itself; that the I (the knower, the subject) encounters the Me (the known, the object); a fundamental property of human selfhood
Self as autobiographical author
the sense of self as a storyteller who reconstructs the past and imagines the future in order to articulate an integrative narrative that provides life w some measure of temporal continuity and purpose
Self as motivated agent
the sense of self as an intentional force that strives to achieve goals, plans, values, projects, and the like
Self as social actor
the sense of the self as an embodied actor whose social performances may be construed in terms of more/less consistent self-ascribed traits/social roles
Self-esteem
the extent to which a person feels that they’re worthy/good; the success or failure that the motivated agent experiences in pursuit of valued goals is a strong determinant of self-esteem
Social reputation
the traits/social roles that others attribute to an actor; actors also have their own conceptions of what they imagine their respective social reputations indeed are in the eyes of others
The age 5-7 shift
cognitive/social changes that occur in the early elementary school years that result in the child’s developing a more purposeful, planful, and goal-directed approach to life, setting the stage for the emergence of the self as a motivated agent
the “I”
the self as knower, the sense of the self as a subject who encounters (knows, works on) itself (the ME)
the Me
the self as known, the sense of teh self as the object/target of the I’s knowledge/work
Confidante
a trusted person w whom secrets/vulnerabilities can be shared
correlation
a measure of the association between two variables, or how they go together
health
the complete state of physical, mental, social well-being - not just the absence of disease or infirmity
health beahviours
behaviours that are associated w better health; examples include exercising, not smoking, and wearing a seat belt while in a vehicle
Machiavellianism
being cunning, strategic, or exploitative in one’s relationships; Machiavelli and the Prince book
Narcissism
a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy/behaviour) a need for admiration, and lack of empathy
Objective social variables
targets of research interest that are factual and not subject to personal opinions or feelings
Ostracism
being excluded and ignored by others
Shunning
the act of avoiding or ignoring a person, and withholding all social interaction for a period of time; generally occurs as a punishment and is temporary
Social integration
active engagement and participation in a broad range of social relationships
Social support
a social network’s provision of psychological and material resources that benefit an individual
subjective social variables
targets of research interest that aren’t necessarily factual but are related to personal opinions or feelings
subjective well-being
the scientific term used to describe how people experience the quality of their lives in terms of life satisfaction and emotional judgements of pos/neg affect
Collectivism
the cultural trend in which the primary unit of measurement is the group; collectivists are likely to emphasize duty and obligation over personal aspirations
cross cultural psychology/studies
an approach to researching culture that emphasizes the use of standard scales as a means of making meaningful comparisons across groups
cultural differences
an approach to understanding culture primarily by paying attention to unique and distinctive features that set them apart from other cultures
Cultural intelligence
ability/willingness to apply cultural awareness to practical uses
Cultural psychology
an approach to researching culture that emphasizes the use of interviews and observation as a means of understanding culture from its own POV
Cultural relativism
the principled objection to passing overly culture-bound (ex. ethnocentric) judgements on aspects of other cultures
Cultural script
learned guides for how to behave appropriately in a given social situation; reflects cultural norms and widely accepted values
Culture
a pattern of shared meaning and behaviour among a group of people that is passed from one generation to the next
Cultural similarities
an approach to understanding culture primarily by paying attention to common features that are the same or similar to those of other cultures
Enculturation
the uniquely human form of learning that is taught by one generation to another
ethnocentric bias
being unduly guided by the beliefs of the culture you’ve grown up in, especially when this results in a misunderstanding or disparagement of unfamiliar cultures
ethnographic studies
research that emphasizes field data collection and that examines questions that attempt to understand culture from it’s own context/pov
independent self
the tendency to define the self in terms of stable traits that guide behaviour
individualism
the cultural trend in which the primary unit of measurement is the individual; individualists are likely to emphasize uniqueness and personal aspirations over social duty
Interdependent self
the tendency to define the self in terms of social contexts that guide behaviour
Observational learning
learning by observing the behaviours of others
Open ended questions
research questions that ask participants to answer their own words
Ritual
rites/actions performed in a systematic or prescribed way often for an intended purpose
Self-construal
the extent to which the self is defined as independent or as relating to others
Situational identity
being guided by different cultural influences in different situations, such as home versus workplace, or formal versus informal roles
Standard scale
research method in which all participants use a common scale - typically a Likert scale - to respond to questions
value judgement
an assessment - based on one’s own preferences and priorities - about the basic “goodness” or “badness” of a concept/practice
value-free research
research that isn’t influenced by the researcher’s own values, morality, opinions
agender
an individual who may have no gender or may describe themselves as having a neutral gender
ambivalent sexism
a concept of gender attitudes that encompasses both positive and negative qualities
benevolent sexism
the “positive” element of ambivalent sexism, which recognizes that women aer perceived as needing to be protected, supported, and adored by men
Bigender
an individual who identifies as two genders
binary
the idea that gender has two separate and distinct categories (male and female) and that a person must be either one or the other
Cisgender
a term used to describe people whose gender matches their biological sex
Developmental intergroup theory
a theory that postulates that adults’ focus on gender leads children to pay attention to gender as a key source of info about themselves and others, to seek out possible gender differences, and to form rigid stereotypes based on gender
Gender
the cultural, social, and psychological meanings that are associated w masculinity and femininity
Gender constancy
the awareness that gender is constant and doesn’t change simply by changing external attributes; develops between 3-6 years of age
gender discrimination
differential treatment on the basis of gender
gender identity
a person’s psychological sense of being male or female
gender roles
the behaviours, attitudes, and personality traits that are designated as either masculine or feminine in a given culture
gender schema theory
theory of how children form their own gender roles argues that children actively organize others’ behaviour, activities, and attributes into gender categories or schemas
Gender stereotypes
the beliefs and expectations people hold about the typical characteristics, preferences, and behaviours of men/women
genderfluid
an individual who may identify as male, female, both, or neither at different times and in different circumstances
genderqueer or gender nonbinary
an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of individuals who do not identify w and/or conform to the gender binary
hostile sexism
the negative element of ambivalent sexism, which includes the attitudes that women are inferior and incompetent relative to men
schemas
the gender categories into which, according to gender schema theory, children actively organize others’ behaviours, activities, and attributes
Sex
biological category of male or female as defined by physical differences in genetic composition and in reproductive anatomy/function
sexual harassment
a form of gender discrimination based on unwanted treatment related to sexual behaviours or appearance
sexual orientation
refers to the direction of emotional and erotic attraction toward members of the opposite sex, same sex, both sexes
Social learning theory
this theory of how children form their own gender roles argues that gender roles are learned through reinforcement, punishment, and modeling
